Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven

Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven (ECC/HANH) is the public housing agency serving the City of New Haven. We serve over 6,100 families and over 14,000 individuals through our public housing, housing choice voucher and low-income housing tax credit programs. Through our affordable housing programs, residents pay no more than 30% of their income toward their housing expenses. Families are supported in reaching their life goals through a full array of supportive services that lead to the increased income, entrepreneurism, education attainment, homeownership and more.

Karen DuBois-Walton (Y’89), Ph.D. is a public administrator who leads in the fields of housing and community development. She leads efforts within New Haven, CT and the Region to remove barriers to fair housing, to reverse housing segregation patterns and to invest in under-resourced communities. In her professional role, she serves as the President of the Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of the City of New Haven offering affordable housing and supportive services to thousands of low-income families. Previously, she served as Chief of Staff and Chief Administrative Officer for Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. in the City of New Haven, CT. Prior to her work in local government, she served with the State of CT Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and Yale Child Study Center. Dr. DuBois-Walton was appointed to the CT State Board of Education by Governor Ned Lamont in 2020 and served as Chair from 2022-2024. She is actively involved on a number of non-profit boards including serving as Chair the Board of The Melville Charitable Trust, Teach for America and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and roles with other organizations that allow her to dedicate time to creating greater equity for those who are marginalized. Dr. DuBois-Walton earned her B.A. from Yale University and M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Boston University. Dr. DuBois-Walton resides in New Haven with her family.

Dwight Hall at Yale

Dwight Hall at Yale is one of the nation’s largest campus-based public service and social justice advocacy organizations. The Hall now supports 74 student-led member groups, experiential learning for 165 term-time and summer fellows, emerging projects, and signature programs; and mobilizes nearly 4,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students who provide more than 60,000 volunteer service hours each year across a range of the most pressing issues facing society today, including education, public health, mental health, hunger and homelessness, and criminal justice reform. Throughout its history, Dwight Hall has been a fixture of New Haven efforts as part of broader societal movements for change, including the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War protests. As an independent 501(c)(3), Dwight Hall is affiliated with, though financially and operationally separate from, Yale University. Members of the Class of 1989 and participants in the service project may support the Dwight Hall Annual Fund online or mail a check to P. O. Box 209008, New Haven, CT 06520.

Johnny Scafidi (Y’01) serves as Director of Community Outreach and Engagement for Dwight Hall at Yale. Inspired by alumni and residents working collaboratively to transform their communities, Johnny was eager to remain in New Haven after graduation. Now in his twenty-third year on staff, Johnny is inspired on a daily basis and coordinates the advancement of collaborative service and justice initiatives in Greater New Haven and beyond. He currently serves as President of Liberty Community Servies, a New Haven non-profit that seeks to end homelessness through supportive housing rooted in a harm-reduction model, and President of the Edith B. Jackson Child Care Program, a Yale-affiliated leading provider of quality child care. When he is not advising students or hosting community members in Dwight Hall, you can often find him traversing New Haven on foot or bus, or on soccer fields throughout Connecticut as a joyful grassroots coach.

New HYTEs (New Haven Youth Tennis & Education)

New HYTEs (New Haven Youth Tennis & Education) is an awarding-winning program that provides weekly academic tutoring, tennis coaching and life skills mentorship to New Haven's economically disadvantaged youth Grades 1-12. Founded in 2010 by the Yale Men's tennis coach and players, New HYTEs provides a long-term afterschool pathway for students beginning Grade 5 to ensure high school graduation and post-secondary success. Learn more on the website. For more information, contact Scott Staniar CEO New HYTEs / Yale '85.

Scott Staniar (Y’85) is CEO of New HYTEs Inc. Scott brings a wide range of business, urban youth development and tennis leadership experience to New HYTEs, along with ties to the New Haven area. Scott graduated from Yale in 1985, where he captained the Yale Men’s tennis team and earned All-Ivy honors in singles & doubles. After 15 years of corporate leadership with Pepsi, Cadbury Schweppes and American Express, Scott led a USTA national multi-cultural advertising campaign and regional launch entitled Tennis Welcome Centers; designed to increase inner city tennis participation rates. One of those pilots included East Shore Park in New Haven, which has served thousands of students since its inception. Scott also served for 6 years as the Vice President of Tennis, Fitness and Summer Programs for Tenacity Inc. in Boston; where he led a summer program serving over 5,000 Boston and Worcester students with tennis and academic mentorship, along with a middle school program serving over 500 elementary, middle, and high school students.

Andrew Metrick (Y’89) is the Janet L. Yellen Professor of Finance and Management at the Yale School of Management (SOM) and the Director of the Yale Program on Financial Stability. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1994, and a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Yale in 1989. Prior to joining the Yale faculty in 2008, he held positions in the finance department at Wharton and the economics department at Harvard. In academic year 2009-10, he was on leave at the Council of Economic Advisers in Washington. Upon returning to Yale, he served as the Deputy Dean of SOM from 2010 to 2016.

Squash Haven

Squash Haven’s mission is to empower New Haven youth to strive for and maintain school success and physical wellness, and to forge a path through higher education to engaged citizenship. Squash Haven relies on a small full time staff base whose work is complemented by the volunteer efforts of Yale University’s squash teams and academic volunteers. Squash Haven team members become part of a thriving learning community that prepares them to realize their very bright futures.

Julie Greenwood, Executive Director. Under Julie’s leadership, the program has grown from 20 aspiring young people in 5th and 6th grades to 160 in 5th through college. Julie believes passionately in youth development, education, community building, college access, and values deeply the intersection of all four in her daily life at Squash Haven. Julie graduated from Williams College, where was a 3 time All-American as well as the recipient of the Purple Key Award for the outstanding female athlete in her class. She earned her Master's in Education from Stanford. Julie lives in New Haven with her husband, Kieran, and sons, Dylan and Rory.

Tom Clayton (PC ’89) is a Partner at A & M Capital Partners. Tom graduated from Yale and received a JD from The Yale Law School. Tom was captain of the Yale University Men's squash team in 1989 and is currently on the Board of Skillman Associates. He is Co-Chair of the Squash Haven board.

Class of 1957 Music in Schools Program 

The award-winning Class of 1957 Music in Schools Program (MISI), was established by a gift from the Yale Class of 1957 with the goal of promoting music education in public schools in New Haven, CT as well as throughout the United States. The New Haven program, which pairs graduate student teaching artists from the Yale School of Music with public school children and music teachers in the New Haven public schools has grown to involve 1000 children a year. MISI has worked to provide instruments, instruction and mentoring to children involved in an array of choral groups, ensembles and bands. In addition, Biennial national symposia have examined how to overcome impediments to music education across the nation.

The class of 1957’s advisory board has turned committee leadership over to members of the class of 1989 and welcomes any 1989 class members who would be excited to become involved.

Dawn M. Bravata, M.D. (SY ’89) trained as a house officer and Chief Resident in the Yale School of Medicine Primary Care Residency Program, during which time she lived in Saybrook College as the resident graduate affiliate. She completed her fellowship at the Yale Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Clinical Scholars Program and then joined the Yale School of Medicine faculty. She is currently Professor of Medicine and Neurology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She has served as a primary care general internist and health services researcher for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) since 2000. Her research focuses on the care and outcomes of patients with complex medical needs. Her current work supports community-dwelling older persons as they age in place. Over the past decade, she has developed a variety of initiatives using participatory music to enhance well-being including a music-making program for Veterans with housing insecurity living in a VA Homeless Domiciliary. She supports the Indianapolis-based Veteran Band project which is a collaborative effort between Butler University and the Indianapolis VA. She was a member of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (2010-2019) and has been an advisory board member of the Yale Class of 1957 Music in Schools Program since 2019. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband (SY ’88) and two sons.

James Lockman (SY ’89) manages Adobe’s Technical Success Services team in the Americas, helping Creative, Document and Experience Cloud customers with complex Named User Licensing and Adobe platform integrations. James is an Adobe Founders’ Award winner, projecting the Adobe Core Values as a Scouts BSA leader, STEM Education advocate, and volunteer Game Announcer with FIRST Robotics. In 2019, he was named FRC Volunteer of the Year at the FIRST Detroit Championship. He has served as Board Member and President of the Yale Science & Engineering Association, leads the Yale Club of Maine, and plays occasionally with the YPMB. James has been a member of the Yale Class of 1957 Music in Schools advisory board since 2019. James lives in Maine with his wife (BR ’92), where he makes maple syrup each spring with his family.

Alison Wittenberg (BK'89, YSN '96, YSN '07) is a psychiatric nurse practitioner with a private practice based in New Haven and Orange, CT. Over the years, Alison has been committed to working with adolescents and adults in the New Haven community as a nurse practitioner in multiple school-based health clinics as well as at The Yale Adolescent Clinic, The Fair Haven Community Health Center and the New Haven Juvenile Detention Center. While at Yale as an undergraduate, Alison served as a Walden student-to-student counselor and delighted in playing guitar with friends. She continues to find joy in music and writing and has published works of creative non fiction. Her enthusiasm for the Music in Schools program stems from her commitment to the New Haven community and her belief in the value of making music available to all. Alison has been a member of the Yale Class of 1957 Music in Schools advisory board since 2019.